Joshua Sim

Beyond the Burning Lands by John Christopher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book continues the story of book 1. Compared to book 1, this book has more of an adventure type of story than a pure politicking one. This changes the pace of the overall plot and also helps with character development.

You will see the main character, Luke, engaging and participating more in the story than just waiting for things to happen. You will see more of his thoughts and how he learns more about the country beyond the burning lands. This does wonders for character development. New characters are also introduced and old characters go through changes as well. With some changes being pretty drastic.

The plot loses the ‘game of thrones’ feel while the adventure part of the plot is proceeding. Although the politicking seems to be a permanent feature every time Luke is in his homeland. However, the adventuring plot isn’t particularly exciting. They just seem to be more of a series of events Luke has to go through to grow. It more like a plot device than a well thought out “hero’s journey” type of plot. It seems like politicking aspect of the plot is the ‘main’ storyline, and we are just being taken on a sideshow here.

I do have to give praise for the writing style this time. Whatever weird and draggy writing style that was in book 1 is suddenly gone in this book. Though it’s not the best I’ve seen, it still is certainly better.

Overall this book being book 2 of a trilogy suffers from the usual fate that all middle books of trilogies face. I.e. they werent as great or memorial as the first or last book. Book 1 was setting up the scene for the trilogy and getting you invested in it. Having already read book 3 myself, I can say that book 2 was really just setting up the climax in book 3.

This book might not stand on its own. But, if you want to see the final politicking, grey morality, game-of-thrones-for-kids style action in the next book, you will have to go through the passable adventure beyond the burning lands.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 3/5
Character Development (25%): 4/5
Writing style (25%): 3/5

Total : 3.25/5

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We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the kind of book if you mix Robert Sawyer and John Scalzi. Sawyer likes to write about personalities or consciences put into an AI/robot form. Scalzi likes to write about the future of humanity in space. We are Bob is a personality or personalities put into a robot form, charged with exploration, colonisation and the future of mankind. And it’s one heck of an interesting read.

The plots in this novel are what hard sci-fi readers crave. The best part is that this book explores it to the fullest. You have doomsday scenarios, space colonisation, and looking for signs of life elsewhere in the galaxy all in one book. Not to mention Bob’s questioning of his existence as an AI. The best part is that the novel unfolds smoothly, which each main plotline being logical extensions of the original plotline. You get all the plots you crave for, and none of them feel forced.

The decision to make the POV character an AI based on a human personality, Bob, was a great one for multiple reasons. Firstly, you only need one character for this novel, Bob, and his many iterations/clones, Bobs. The Bobs are all extremely witty when talking to each other and make for many laughs with their delightful banter. Second, because the AI Bobs are immortal, the actual exploration events set in space, which would take many years can be shortened down into a readable narrative. AI Bob doesn’t have to experience time minute for minute and can just skip years of dull time used for space travel and then just pick up where he left off. Third, the AI Bobs make for a good thought experiment as to how AI might think and how they might question ‘themself’, themselves, and their own existence. As well as how they or any AI would respond to situations at hand.

The only real issue I found in this book was the interactions and introductions of new AI Bobs. Because most of the individual AI Bobs have similar personalities (and similar everything actually), it starts to be hard to tell them apart. Where in a conventional story, you can tell characters apart by their personality or features, you only can tell AI Bobs apart by their name and mission. Ultimately I had to resort to scribbling down simple notes of each major AI Bob and their mission just to keep track of who’s who. (I listened to this book in audio, so it made the problem worse.) In some ways, I can’t fault the author for this because the plot demands it, but maybe he could have found a better way to introduce the AI Bobs or label them. Even some sort of chart would have helped. In the audiobook form, the narrator did help a little by giving some of the AI Bobs a different accent.

I highly recommend this book to any sci-fi enthusiast. It’s hard sci-fi but written in light-hearted tones that anyone can easily pick up. Personally, I find this book to be a refreshing narrative in the sci-fi genre and it has definitely set itself apart from the recent sci-fi publications. Considering that this novel is the author’s first published work, it is exceptionally good.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 5/5
Character Development (25%): 4.5/5
Writing style (25%): 4/5

Total : 4.62/5

Disclaimers:
– I read this as an audiobook

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Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For a book written on a dare, this is surprisingly good.

Sanderson doesn’t disappoint with this book. All the usual features of this writing style can be found here. It is not as epic or as deep as some of his other books. But it is entertaining enough and witty.

The suspense and thriller element in this book is good, as is the whodunit aspect. I totally didn’t see the plot twists in this book till much later. Not to mention that this book has plot twists layered on top of each other with the plot and sub-plots.

I liked the character development in this book, and I think it’s the strongest suit for this book surprisingly. Sanderson is not famous because of this. The two sisters in the book go through stresses and become stronger because of them. It is interesting to hear their opinions on the events around them. My favourite character, however, is Lightsong the Bold, one of the gods in the book. Most of the wit and humour comes from him. It is interesting to see how a ‘god’ thinks.

Though Sanderson puts in his usual world-building in this book, I was pretty confused by it all. It’s pretty complex to begin with, and there are a few false histories, all to do with the main plot and secret hidden agendas. I knew enough to understand the suspense and the politicking, but not enough to fully appreciate the scale of it.

Also, I am still slightly confused on the magic system this time. But again, enough to understand how they move the plot, but not enough to understand the ‘science’ of it (like in Mistborn). Dead people returning to life and colours and ‘breathes’ used to animate ropes don’t seem to gel well together in my head.

This book feels complete on its own. I don’t see why there would be a need for a trilogy for this book.

I would recommend this to all Sanderson fans. If you are a general fantasy fan, I think it would be better to read another Sanderson book first than to jump into this one right away. I mean, when you read a Sanderson book for the first time, you’ll probably walk away from it wanting to read all of them.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 4.5/5
Character Development (25%): 5/5
Writing style (25%): 4/5

Total : 4.5/5

Disclaimers:
– I read this as an audiobook

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The Prince in Waiting by John Christopher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is basically a Song of Ice and Fire (i.e. Game of Thrones) for children. Want to read about betrayal, treachery, characters-dying-even-though-you-like-them, but don’t want to read a 1000 page introduction to the series which is Game of Thrones? Then this book is for you.

It starts off like a children’s tale of princes and the like but turns dark fast. Real fast. Once characters start dying, you know you are in the right spot. It may seem like a typical ‘hero’s journey’ at first, but I really don’t think it is. It really is like Game of Thrones, as I said, and you’ll be left guessing who’s gonna betray who next. But I guess since it’s a kids book, it’s only told from one person’s perspective.

I picked up this book because it was listed as ‘gray morality’ on TV Tropes, and it did not disappoint. Nobody is truly evil, and everyone thinks they are right, or at least they are looking out for themselves first.

You may or may not like the protagonist. In fact, I don’t really think of him as a protagonist, but more of a point of view (POV) character. He shares his thoughts and feelings but doesn’t actually do much. It seems more like things are happening around him, and he is situated in the centre of it all. In fact, he is a pretty entitled and self-centred brat really. He doesn’t really bother about thinking from other people’s perspectives, nor is he very bright. – Like every princeling ever.

The other characters are varied and interesting. Not everyone is hungry for power (or so they seem). And it is the other character’s character development that is interesting to watch.

My only gripe about this book is the writing style. I really hated it. Christopher seems to write about things in a roundabout way. Normally I don’t really like descriptives passages too much. But in this book, there was really too little of it, or poorly done. There is no good description of the city the characters live in. Most book critics talk about the ‘show vs tell’ way of writing. However, this book is lacking in both show or tell.

Also, the book is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where man has returned to the medieval ages. I learned this from reading the book synopsis, not from the actual passages. One would think there would be passages describing the ruins of modern man, with all the ruined skyscrapers and such. But it’s really just called tall metal ruins in the book.

I still want to continue on with the series and I would recommend this book to any Song of Ice and Fire fans. Apparently, the 2nd book in this trilogy is more of a hero’s journey and the characters don’t seem to be playing any game of thrones any more. So the similarities end here. You might have difficulty finding it in your local library since it’s pretty old.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 5/5
Character Development (25%): 4/5
Writing style (25%): 1/5

Total : 3.75/5

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Sabriel by Garth Nix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sabriel is a fantasy tale off the beaten track, exploring elements unseen in other fantasy books. The plot and setting for Sabriel are quite original. It’s about a girl with anti-necromancer powers. Rather than bringing back the dead, she has to put them to rest. Using magical bells that affect the dead and a sword, she has to defeat an ancient evil. I liked the idea of the 9 gates of death (technically a purgatory), where once you passed the ninth gate, there is no turning back. The ‘magic system’, although having a narrow focus on only the dead, is pretty creative and rigorous. Akin the Brandon Sanderson type of magic: where the magic is like a science, with universal laws.

Setting wise, one thing that surprised me was the split in the world between a WWI type country and a magic medieval country, separated by a wall. This is quite an uncommon trope and it seemed to work in this book. However, the semantics of how two such countries would work together seem slightly unbelievable. Both countries seem to have not influenced each other in any way, other than the few people living near the borders.

Setting aside, the plot flowed well and tied up well right at the end. Elements found throughout the book were used again; no excess writing here. No deus ex machinas either, which is A+ work to me. Although it’s really a hero’s journey type story, Sabriel avoided a lot of cliches and overused tropes. For example, there is no single mentor figure, but several, and these several come in different forms. In a book about necromancers, character deaths actually do happen, and the surviving characters have to deal with it. A lot of other reviewers have mentioned that this is not really unique, but for a book written in 1995, I would argue that it is.

For all the tropes that this book managed to avoid, it does, however, end up having an abrupt and unnecessary romantic sub plot. I guess it’s more to do with appealing to YA readers and the writing style rather than a bad plot.

I’d expect a published book to have a certain standard in terms of writing, but the standard here was not met. It wasn’t as if it was un-readable, it was more so that the setting and fantastical elements weren’t explained as well as they could have. A lot of missed opportunity here really. I had to go to Wikipedia (when i was 1/3 thru reading) to figure out that there were two countries with different levels of technology or magic. I have to admit also that I never fully understood the whole ‘free magic’ and ‘charter magic’ bits in the book. Blunders like these made a lot of readers give up reading (as can be seen on the 1 to 3 star Goodreads reviews). There were other oddities in the writing, such as a sudden POV shift to the #2 character in the book inserted seemingly random points throughout the narrative that was mostly focused on Sabriel, the protagonist.

Even through bad writing, character growth shines in this book. Sabriel, the protagonist, grows a lot from the start of the book to the end. From a girl finishing school, she becomes the anti-necromancer, shouldering the burden of subduing a most powerful of the dead. She is believable and relatively relatable. Her transformation due to the happenings in the plot are logical and make sense. The character growth is also consistent from plot point to plot point.

I like this book, even though I thought it could have been so much more. I will recommend it to regular readers of fantasy, and I will read the next 2 books in this trilogy to see what happens. Considering that this is Nix’s first published book, it seems that the next two books will be way better.

P.S. This book has a cat in it.

Score Breakdown:
Story/Plot (50%): 4.5/5
Character Development (25%): 4/5
Writing style (25%): 2/5

Total : 3.75/5

Disclaimers:
– I read this as an audiobook

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